Thursday, March 22, 2012

Your HDTV is watching you

Ten years ago, I wrote an article detailing the emerging technology in flat screen and plasma TVs that had within them, microphone and buried cameras/electic eyes, which were motioned activated. That article got lots of laughs from everyone, but it was out there and so were the products that had them. I explained that these TVs were tied into cable providers, essentially acting as an always on seeing/hearing device for the intelligence agencies.

Since that time, it has emerged that yes, not only does the technology exist, but Sony. LG, and Samsung have it installed in their systems, including other features.

This makes those large flat screen babies big bonanza spy devices for the spook agencies and in every home.

As the following article by someone else details, it's explained away as a limited hangout (agency term.) You are being watched, but it's only for advertisement purposes. Honest. Really. It's only to sell you junk for Walmart.

Riiiiiiiiiight.

So, I guess it's okay for your living room to be hooked in to the network (so are the CIA and everyone else, think cloud services) and that everything that happens in your home is being filmed and recorded 24/7 and there is no way you can disable the thing, once installed. And if only for ad tracking, why do they need to listen and watch.

This reminds me of laptops, which are always on video and audio recording devices that have been proven in the last few years as being abused by school districts, businesses (Aaron brothers surveills its customers that it sells or rents to, fact.), and federal agencies (FBI, etc - search google and see the court cases where this has come to the surface.)

You feel okay with that? Your TV and agencies and persons unknown watching every little thing you say and do in your house and YOU ARE PAYING FOR THEM TO DO IT, TOO. You pay for the TV and the cable service.

What a real windfall of survelliance for the spy agencies. You pay to be watched by them.

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Samsung’s 2012 top-of-the-line plasmas and LED HDTVs offer new features never before available within a television including a built-in, internally wired HD camera, twin microphones, face tracking and speech recognition. While these features give you unprecedented control over an HDTV, the devices themselves, more similar than ever to a personal computer, may allow hackers or even Samsung to see and hear you and your family, and collect extremely personal data.

While Web cameras and Internet connectivity are not new to HDTVs, their complete integration is, and it’s the always connected camera and microphones, combined with the option of third-party apps (not to mention Samsung’s own software) gives us cause for concern regarding the privacy of TV buyers and their friends and families.

Samsung has not released a privacy policy clarifying what data it is collecting and sharing with regard to the new TV sets. And while there is no current evidence of any particular security hole or untoward behavior by Samsung’s app partners, Samsung has only stated that it “assumes no responsibility, and shall not be liable” in the event that a product or service is not “appropriate.”

Samsung demoed these features to the press earlier this month. The camera and microphones are built into the top if the screen bezel in the 2012 8000-series plasmas and are permanently attached to the top of the 7500- and 8000ES-series LED TVs.

A Samsung representative showed how, once set up and connected to the Internet, these models will automatically talk to the Samsung cloud and enable viewers to use new and exciting apps.

These Samsung TVs locate and make note of registered viewers via sophisticated face recognition software. This means if you tell the TV whose faces belong to which users in your family, it personalizes the experience to each recognized family member. If you have friends over, it could log these faces as well.

In addition, the TV listens and responds to specific voice commands. To use the feature, the microphone is active. What concerns us is the integration of both an active camera and microphone. A Samsung representative tells us you can deactivate the voice feature; however this is done via software, not a hard switch like the one you use to turn a room light on or off.

And unlike other TVs, which have cameras and microphones as add-on accessories connected by a single, easily removable USB cable, you can’t just unplug these sensors.

During our demo, unless the face recognition learning feature was activated, there was no indication as to whether the camera (such as a red light) and audio mics are on. And as far as the microphone is concerned the is no way to physically disconnect it or be assured it is not picking up your voice when you don’t intend it to do so.

Samsung does provide the ability to manually reposition the TV’s camera away from viewers. The LED TV models allow you to manually point it upward, facing the ceiling; the plasma’s camera can be re-aimed to capture objects in the rear of the TV according a Samsung spokesperson.

Privacy concerns

We began to wonder exactly what data Samsung collects from its new “eyes and ears” and how it and other companies intend use it, which raises the following questions:

* Can a person or company listen to you, at will, via the microphone and Internet connection?

* Does Samsung’s cloud store all this information? How secure is this extremely personal data?

* Can a hacker intercept this data or view you via the built in camera?

* Can a third-party app program do any of the above?

* Exactly what information does the TV send to Samsung or other parties?

* Does Samsung intend to sell data collected by its Smart TV owners, such as who, what and when one is viewing?

Companies desiring to provide highly targeted advertisements to you via the TV screen or external marketing would find this data extremely valuable. “Hey, you look a little tired, how about some Ambien? I’m seeing a little grey, have you tried Grecian Formula? Joe, it looks like you packed on a few pounds recently, here’s information from Weight Watchers. Hey kids, you look bored, look at these TOYS!”